End Police Occupation of the African (Black) Community in Toronto

1.) We demand the immediate arrest of the police officers and military who murdered and/or brutalized our people

Police in Toronto have a long history of brutality against African people and aren’t even ashamed of it. Even today they violate our rights and beat us up on the streets and in jail. Many times young African men go to the police station or to jail fine and come out with bruises all over them. Some brothers are lucky to even make it out at all as many have died as a result. We demand that any officer accused of a crime against black people be arrested and be brought to trial. This is the reality of all black people and it should also be the reality of the police.

2.) We demand an end to public policies of police containment that put a political strategy in place that make it legal to arrest, harass, and violate the democratic rights of African people, including. i. Anti-gang initiatives ii. No trespass laws iii. Three strike laws IV. War on terror in the African community

Anti gang initiatives like TAVIS are only in place to see that large amounts of Africans get locked up in this wicked system many times just for being black or talking back. We get raided and still nothing ever changes. These initiatives like TAVIS are a strategy for police to be able to harass black people at random and allow police to lock up our people without cause.

3.) We demand a trial by jury of peers for Africans, meaning people from the same community and class.

African people often are tried by all white juries and white judges that do not know about the conditions African people face or the policies that make it hard for African people and force us to have to cut corners (Hustle) in order to make it. This causes these jurors not to have any understanding of why African people act the way they act and these jurors end up siding with the court system instead of weighing all the reasons. The laws that we are accused of breaking are the laws or the white ruling class who pass laws to criminalize anyone who does not do as they see fit. For instance marijuana is legal if the government allows you to have it but for the average brother on the street we get a trip to jail or a fine. It’s just like back in slavery when the forefathers of these same rulers made it illegal for our forefathers who were slaves to escape. It was a crime to be a runaway and the police saw to it that we were returned to our masters or even killed. That was the role of police then and that is still their role now, just the form of slavery has changed. White people in this country get white juries to try them so black people should get black jurors.

4.) We demand mass tribunals in every city around the world to bring about true justice and demands for reparations and arrests of perpetrators in every area where there is injustice.

We believe that the SIU probes and any other government probes are not truly meant to find justice for our people as they never indict their own people. The only justice for African people can only come about when working class African people lead up tribunals into injustices against African people. A slave stands no chance getting justice if he has to go through his master to get it. Would a thief jail himself? No!

5.) We demand an end to the PUBLIC POLICY of police containment of African people, to be replaced by a PUBLIC POLICY of economic development.

All studies show that poverty breeds violence so if one wants to end poverty the answer is simple, create jobs and bring more economic develop to the community instead of more police. The African community in Toronto never gets economic development all we get is more police because they don’t want us to have a meaningful existence. They believe that we should always be poor; this is their way of keeping us down. We end up fighting each other for the limited wealth in our community which leads to us robbing each other etc. If you put three people in a room with limited food and the things necessary to live comfortable, eventually they will attack each other. That’s exactly how you get black on black crime. The reason why all we get is more police is because the government and police understand that they have been committing crimes against African people for years and are afraid that one day we will wake up and really do something about it. They know the youth are the most rebellious and that’s why they seek to lock our youth up so we don’t fight back.

Launched by the International Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement Toronto Branch in an effort to get justice for black people who have been brutalized and are still being brutalized by the Toronto Police